Lawyers Play Speed-Date in Toyota Suit Tussle

SAN DIEGO—It was the legal world's equivalent of speed-dating. Two dozen attorneys crowded into a courtroom here Thursday and made impassioned, two-minute pleas before a panel of judges.

The lawyers are seeking home-court advantage for where the growing number of lawsuits filed against
Toyota Motor
Corp.
will be heard.

One attorney argued for a Wyoming court setting, telling the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation how quickly cases move through the system there. Another sung the praises of a Louisiana judge who managed to keep cases moving along even as Hurricane Katrina barreled down. A third pitched for California, where Toyota's U.S. headquarters is based, saying it was the "center of gravity" of the cases.

ENLARGE

Lawyer Mark Robinson speaks Thursday outside the U.S. courthouse in San Diego, where judges heard arguments about the venue for Toyota suits.
Associated Press

At stake are huge fees that only a few lawyers will collect in the suits against Toyota, which were filed after the Japanese company recalled more than eight million vehicles world-wide for reports of sudden acceleration. Lawyers based where the lawsuits are heard will have a good shot at taking the lead position in the cases.

Roughly 140 suits have been filed in federal courts across the country blaming Toyota's problems for fatalities, injuries or for causing owners' vehicles to lose value. Some seek class-action status. (Dozens more suits have been filed in state or other courts; the San Diego panel handles only federal cases.)

The panel's role is important because it starts the process of streamlining the litigation, doling out the cases to be heard before one or maybe a handful of judges.

That means just a few plaintiffs' attorneys will end up arguing the cases. The lawyers will decide among themselves in informal and highly competitive fashion who will lead the litigation, with the judge assigned to hear the cases also playing a role.

Before the hearing began Thursday morning, the courtroom was a sea of dark suits as attorneys huddled, some in heated arguments about who among the more than 100 of them would present their positions before the panel.

They had arrived to find the judges had allocated just two minutes for arguments on behalf of each of the 19 U.S. judicial jurisdictions various attorneys had requested. They had to decide among themselves who would get those precious minutes, and some engaged in horse-trading, divvying up their time with others.

Houston attorney
Mark Lanier,
known for the Vioxx case against
Merck &
Co.
, compared the bartering for time to "cigarettes in jail."

ENLARGE

Documents from Toyota cases outside the U.S. courthouse in San Diego.
Associated Press

"It's like the floor of the New York Stock Exchange," said
Michael Louis Kelly,
a Los Angeles attorney who is hoping the cases are centered in California.

Ben Barnow,
a Chicago attorney, said he ended up getting assigned the two minutes for the California jurisdiction because "people saw the virtue of my ways." He shared one of his minutes with
Mark P. Robinson Jr.,
an attorney who fought
Ford Motor
Co.
over cases involving fires in its Pintos in the 1970s.

Time was so limited the attorneys strategized about how to most quickly get to the podium once their names were called. "You gotta be right here—tick, tick, tick," said
Stan Chesley,
a Cincinnati attorney.

The attorneys barely had time to make their cases, and the panel stopped some in midsentence. "I'm sorry for cutting you off. This is just the way we have to do it," said the panel's chairman, U.S. District Judge
John G. Heyburn II
of Kentucky.

For Toyota, billions of dollars could be at stake, not only in verdicts and settlements but also in the legal costs associated with fighting suits on multiple fronts. People familiar with Toyota's legal strategy said the company for the most part doesn't plan to settle and is digging in for a lengthy fight. A company spokeswoman wouldn't comment on Toyota's legal strategy.

Cari Dawson,
an outside attorney for Toyota, told the panel in court the company wants the cases consolidated into as few as possible and would like them to be heard in the Central District of California, near its U.S. base in Torrance and closer to Japan than many other U.S. locales, which would be more convenient for its witnesses. "Japan is going to play a critical role," she said.

The panel can send the cases wherever it wants and the judges have wide liberties in how to consolidate them. A decision is expected in two to six weeks.

In choosing a judge or judges to hear the cases, the panel may consider whether dockets are crowded, whether a judge has experience hearing complex cases and whether the venue is convenient for potential witnesses.

The competition among attorneys was on full display Wednesday as about 100 lawyers gathered in a hotel ballroom across the street from the federal courthouse for a "Toyota Recall Litigation Conference" to discuss strategies. The session was peppered with Toyota-bashing, but mostly it was a showcase for attorneys to make their pitches for why they should lead the litigation.

Some thought being first to file cases of various types or in various venues should earn them a lead role. "I filed first in Rhode Island and North Carolina," said attorney
David Szerlag,
by way of introduction.

Midway through the seminar, superstars had emerged.

Houston's Mr. Lanier throughout the day was trailed by a klatch of attorneys, one of whom patted his arm warmly as he passed by. "I don't even know that guy," Mr. Lanier said.

In a booming speech that seemed straight off a campaign trail, Mr. Lanier noted to a rapt audience how he can tailor his courtroom demeanor from judge to judge, ranging from "ballet" to "World Wrestling Federation" depending on the judge's tastes.

He also said the attorneys who take the lead in the Toyota cases must be willing to spare no expense. He noted his firm had put up $13 million for the litigation against Merck for wrongful death suits involving the pain-killer Vioxx.

Mark Geragos,
who worked as a criminal defense attorney for Michael Jackson, offered a lunchtime speech that was part pep rally, saying Toyota is guilty of "corporate murder," and part Kumbaya.

"Everyone in this room is on the precipice of the opportunity to expose the greatest corporate malfeasance," said Mr. Geragos. "I would hope everyone in this room could coalesce and come together."

While some of the attorneys nodded in agreement, later as they swilled drinks poolside on a hotel terrace one leaned in and predicted the scene yet to come: "It's going to be a bloodbath," he said.

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